Many of our smallest congregations are trying new ways to join Jesus in reaching out to new people. In the article below, Bob Miller, who pastors GCI’s church in Birmingham, Alabama, shares his congregation’s story.

Fellowship group-sized congregations often see themselves as too small to make an impact beyond their immediate members. That was our case at Grace Covenant Fellowship in Birmingham. But then God led us to change our place and mode of meeting, and that led us to shift our way of thinking about ourselves and our mission.

Given that we are both small and aging, we prayed, wondering what role we might play as a church in being Jesus’ “hands and feet” in the community. We had our familiar Sunday afternoon routine of coming together for worship in a nice church building belonging to others. It was comfortable for us (and occasional guests). A really wonderful member provided PowerPoint presentations for our singing and sermons. We enjoyed our worship and did our best to meet the needs of one another. We also got involved in outreach as finances permitted (we’re even helping plant a new GCI church). But something was missing. We wanted to share worship with others—not just see our group “age out.”

Then one day late last fall, I was encouraged to approach a local rehabilitation center (pictured below) to see if we might provide a worship service for them. Their program director was very interested as she had been contacting churches in the area to see if they could provide a worship service for those going through rehab in their facility.

We felt this was God’s answer to our prayers—an open door to join with him in ministering to some people going through very difficult times. These men and women are at the facility recovering from strokes, broken bones, various surgeries, hip and knee replacements, etc. Most are in wheelchairs; some use walkers.

So in December of last year we moved our church, lock, stock and barrel, into this new place of meeting and there began holding our Sunday morning worship service. The rehab center does not charge us rent since we’re serving their guests. With the money saved, we purchased some basic equipment: a portable sound system, a shelving unit to store our “stuff,” and an electronic keyboard. It has been a rewarding and encouraging experience—a good fit for us and our resources.

We continue to use PowerPoint to accompany our singing. We stay seated as we sing since our guests must do so. We made a few adjustments to the service to make it more visitor-friendly. We don’t take up an offering, but there is an offering basket where members can place their offerings. One of our visitors was so excited about what we were doing that they mailed us a check for $500! We hand out a printed bulletin with information about our congregation and GCI. We have a local post office box which we use as our mailing address.

Our members are energized and have really taken to showing the love of God to our guests, most who have a church they attend back home. However, they appreciate having an opportunity to worship during their rehab time, which can last from three to six weeks. The feedback has been very positive. One interesting thing that has occurred is that the guests enjoy it so much they often invite family to attend with them. Imagine our surprise on entering the meeting room one Sunday to see the back of the room filled with family members! We scrambled to set out more chairs.

One lady who was apparently recovering from a stroke, with tears in her eyes, told my wife Ruth, “I have loved Jesus my whole life.” It took great effort for her to get the words out, but you could see the emotion of gratitude for being able to experience Jesus with us in worship.

Another guest, a gospel singer, sang for us several times. It’s wonderful to have the flexibility to share ministry with whoever comes our way. A staff member who attended with one of the guests had been an evangelist in Kenya. There are many other stories I could share, but you get the idea. I feel that this experiment fits well GCI’s vision for “all kinds of churches, for all kinds of people, in all kinds of places.”

Here are reports from GCI churches in Texas, Ohio and Florida that are rebuilding. All three have participated in GCI’s Outside the Walls (OTW) training with Church Multiplication Ministries (CMM). The training included a major community outreach event, which by God’s grace has led to new members in all three.

Pathway of Grace Church – Mesquite, TX

Pathway of Grace participated in OTW last summer. Here is a report from lead pastor Gabriel Ojih.

He knocked on my office door one afternoon with his little niece in tow. I was in a meeting, but we invited them in. He told us his name and said he lives in the neighborhood. He had been looking for a church to attend when three neighbors suggested he “check out” Pathway of Grace. I welcomed them, offered bottled water and we chatted as he shared a bit of his life story. I shared our values and vision and invited him to church that Sunday. We prayed together and they left.

Sunday he showed up at church with his family of four plus his brother and sister and her family of three and a friend. They have been attending ever since. He heard about our church from three different people in his neighborhood who had been introduced to us at our OTW community outreach event last summer.

For a couple of years Pathway of Grace had been in the grip of “holy restlessness” with a burden to become more than a Sunday worship gathering. We recognized we had plateaued and were dying, even though we were a friendly, loving church. Our first step in rebuilding was to utilize the help of Church Administration and Development in assessing our situation using the Transformational Church Assessment Tool (TCAT).

As a congregation, we had been involved sporadically with our community outreach through Share Fair (pictured above) and other events. However, those events were not focused on a vision to join Jesus in our immediate community in making disciples. They were acts of love, but there was no intentional follow-up to connect people back to the congregation. That’s where OTW training helped re-orient our thinking and planning. Last June we held our first OTW event (watch the video below).

On YouTube at https://youtu.be/HMf4ahtonbw.

The event was a community-oriented Family Fun Day with food, games, and conversation. We reached out to the community by knocking on doors to invite our neighbors to the event, handing out flyers and giving motorists bottles of water with Pathway cards attached. We also improved our signage to identify ourselves. At the event we used connection cards to compile a database of information about those who attended so we can invite them to future events.

During the Fun Day, which was held on a Saturday, we invited our guests to our worship service the next day, which featured a blessing of children and students ceremony. We also invited our guests to a Vacation Bible School (VBS) held the week after the Fun Day.

Through these outreach events we grew closer together as a congregation, conquering our fears about reaching out. We learned to be more aware of how a new person might experience us; and better ways to reach out to, receive, and relate with unchurched people in our community. We had lots of fun along the way!

We will continue to engage our community through outreach events at least five times a year. They are wonderful opportunities for meaningful conversation with our neighbors. We are also learning to be more welcoming when people visit us—greeting them from the parking lot through our doors and at our welcome center inside where we give them small gifts to say, “We’re glad you came!” We’re not perfect, but we continue to learn—following up with our guests during the week and developing friendships—pathways for including them in our congregational life through small groups and other points of connection outside the Sunday service. As a result, we have seen a steady trickle of people being sent into our midst by the Lord—often the result of contacts made at the outreach events. We are growing in numbers, but more importantly, we are growing in our participation with our Lord in his life of love within our community.

Christ Fellowship Church– Cincinnati, OH

Christ Fellowship Church (CFC) participated in OTW last fall. Here is a report from lead pastor Dustin Lampe.

As the saying goes, home is where the heart is—where you can let down your hair and relax. My family and I like to relax at home. But when company is coming, the pace changes! We get the troops (the kids) in gear, grab the cleaning supplies, and buckle down. We want our guests to enjoy a clean home and to walk away talking about the great time they had. Our goal is radical hospitality.

Churches need the same goal, and for us that meant change. We had grown comfortable with a rather closed circle of fellowship. But God woke us up and we began making plans to change. We began by preparing to invite people in the neighborhoods surrounding our church building to an OTW event we named Fall Festival! (see picture and invitation flyer below).

Hosting this outreach event meant more than just a few frenetic hours of cleaning. It required that I, as lead pastor, be willing and able to lead change. First it meant helping other leaders embrace the vision Christ had given us to be an open, inviting community. If some leaders were not open to this shift, I would have to ask them to reorient. If some were unwilling to reorient, we would have to move forward without them in leadership roles. Next I had to gather a team of people willing to serve as good “leaven” out in in the community. This was vital because we were a church that loved one another (as insiders) but had not learned to open our circle of fellowship to make room for outsiders.

By God’s grace we now have a small but deeply committed and loyal inner circle of leaders and workers who are sold-out for our vision. They are good “leaven” that is working its way through the “dough” of our congregation. Now outreach events and programs (like Fall Festival! and the other events shown in the invitation flyers below) are not optional add-ons, but the heart of who we are.

The journey to this place has been a dramatic shift. The momentum created by OTW and our follow up events is still pushing us forward, months later. We don’t want to lose that momentum, but remain dedicated to being open and inviting. This is God’s house and the people that are not here yet are God’s people.

Christian Family Fellowship – Jacksonville, FL

Christian Family Fellowship (CFF) participated in OTW this spring. Here is a report from lead pastor Marty Davey.

Gradual growth over the last several years has allowed us to keep up with normal attrition, yet we desired to improve the way we were participating with Jesus in making new disciples. OTW training has helped us improve our outreach. In particular, it has helped us become more effective at welcoming the new disciples the Lord is sending to us through events like our OTW Neighborhood Fun Day.

Thanks to OTW, our members are now more alert to the needs of first-time guests to our church, and are more focused on how we can meet those needs. We have learned better ways to reach out to unchurched people in our community. Some of our members have gained experience in visiting the homes of neighbors with an invitation to a free church event. More of our members are now willing to participate on a “call back” team that invites those who attended the event to our worship services. Several excitedly shared the positive responses they received.

As seen in the video below, our “Neighborhood Fun Day” OTW outreach event welcomed about 200 people to our church grounds. For a few weeks prior to the event we had gone into surrounding neighborhoods knocking on doors and handing out flyers inviting people to come.

On Youtube at https://youtu.be/ZnhJq6Ui1Uo.

Those who attended enjoyed free hot dogs, hamburgers, drinks and cotton candy. There were fun activities that few kids could resist, all at no cost to the visitors. There were pony rides, a small petting zoo, bounce houses, carnival games, basketball shooting contests, and face-painting. There were free raffles each hour, with prizes, enabling us to gather contact information for over 50 households in the area that will be used to send out invitations to future events scattered throughout the year.

The event included a few things of interest to adults, including an arts-and-crafts display and really good used clothing. These were displayed inside the sanctuary so that people could become familiar with our building and thus less insecure about attending our worship services. Outside we had a Prayer Booth where visitors could stop for prayer or to chat about their troubles or blessings.

Throughout the event, our members were actively meeting and greeting our guests, getting to know them and inviting them to our worship services or to other connecting points like our small groups and specialized ministries. All this was carefully thought out in advance with the help of our OTW trainers who joined us in Jacksonville for the event.